Master Tomcat: Install, Configure, and Integrate with Nginx on Linux

Tomcat

Overview

Tomcat is a free open‑source lightweight web application server written in Java, widely used for development and debugging of JSP programs in small‑to‑medium systems.

Installation

1. Install via yum

# yum install tomcat* -y

2. Binary installation

Install JDK first

# rpm -ivh jdk-8u201-linux-x64.rpm
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jdk1.8.0_201-amd64
export CLASSPATH=$JAVA_HOME/lib/tools.jar:$JAVA_HOME/lib/dt.jar
export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
# tar zxvf apache-tomcat-9.0.16.tar.gz
# cp -r apache-tomcat-9.0.16 /usr/local/tomcat
# cd /usr/local/tomcat
# /usr/local/tomcat/bin/startup.sh
# /usr/local/tomcat/bin/shutdown.sh
# useradd -s /sbin/nologin tomcat
# chown tomcat:tomcat /usr/local/tomcat -R
cat > /usr/lib/systemd/system/tomcat.service <<EOF
[Unit]
Description=Tomcat
After=syslog.target network.target

[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=/usr/local/tomcat/bin/startup.sh
ExecStop=/usr/local/tomcat/bin/shutdown.sh
RestartSec=3
PrivateTmp=true
User=tomcat
Group=tomcat

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF
# systemctl daemon-reload
# systemctl start tomcat

Configuration files and core components

bin : startup and shutdown scripts (catalina.sh, startup.sh, shutdown.sh).

conf : main configuration files (server.xml, context.xml, tomcat-users.xml, web.xml).

lib : JAR libraries.

logs : log files (catalina.out).

temp : temporary files.

webapps : deployed web applications.

work : work directory for compiled JSPs.

conf sub‑directory files

server.xml : global server configuration.

web.xml : default deployment descriptor for all webapps.

context.xml : default Context configuration for all webapps.

tomcat-users.xml : user authentication.

catalina.policy : security policy.

catalina.properties : environment variables and JVM tuning.

logging.properties : logging configuration.

Tomcat ports

8080 – HTTP port.

8005 – Shutdown port.

8009 – AJP connector.

Virtual host configuration

# mkdir -p /data/web{1,2,3}/ROOT/ -pv
# echo web1 > /data/web1/ROOT/index.html
# echo web2 > /data/web2/ROOT/index.html
# echo web3 > /data/web3/ROOT/index.html
# chown -R tomcat.tomcat /data/

Tomcat + Nginx static‑dynamic separation

# Stop firewall
systemctl stop firewalld.service
setenforce 0
# Install epel and nginx
yum install epel-release.noarch -y
yum install nginx -y
# Edit /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
upstream web {
    server 192.168.10.40;
    server 192.168.10.50;
}
location / {
    proxy_pass http://web;
}
location ~\.jsp$ {
    proxy_pass http://192.168.10.60:8080;
}
location ~\.(jpg|html)$ {
    root /usr/share/nginx/html;
}

Access Tomcat web pages via IP address and port:

Illustration of Nginx reverse‑proxy configuration: